BOZEMAN — The Montana State women earned the program's first national postseason tournament win on Sunday.
The Bobcats beat San Francisco in front of a crowd of 2,238 fans, which was the largest attendance of any WNIT game so far this year. The next-largest total was 1,225.
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After the game, Bobcats coach Tricia Binford credited what she called an unbelievable crowd.
"This is my first playoff game here," Binford said. "In Bozeman, in The Brick on March 22, to have this crowd show up to get behind the kids gave me goosebumps walking out."
After a slow offensive start for Montana State, Taylee Chirrick hit a 3-pointer as time expired in the first quarter to bring the Bobcats within two points. Binford said the team fed off of the energy of the crowd in that moment and beyond.
"We got to hear our crowd on the defensive end, the free throws, every single thing," Binford said. "This is a big part, that we're sharing this moment with Bozeman."
Sophomore forward Addison Harris acknowledged how cool it is to be a part of something that the program hasn't done before in winning a national postseason tournament game.
"It's amazing, and we had a huge crowd come up for that," Harris said. "So (a) big shout out to Bozeman for supporting the women's basketball team. It means the world, and (the Dons) were absolutely rattled."
Chirrick said it's great still getting to play in front of the home fans.
"The crowd we got today was awesome, and coming off of spring break too," Chirrick said. "I don't even know if I expected this big of a crowd, we definitely fuel off of it."
Harris proudly proclaimed Worthington Arena as the best home court advantage in the Big Sky Conference.
"It gets deafening when we're on defense," Harris said. "I can't even hear myself think."
Montana State's next opponent, Portland, played in front of a home crowd of 512 in its 78-68 win over Lamar on Sunday.
When the Bobcats host the Pilots in a Super 16 matchup on Thursday at 7 p.m. they'll look to feed off of that home -crowd energy again.
